Doorify Real Estate Podcast

Your 2025 Real Estate Social Media Strategy with Shannon McKinstrie

• Doorify MLS • Episode 71

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One of the key elements to thriving in real estate is leveraging social media effectively. It’s not just about posting listings; it’s about telling stories and showing authenticity. 

In this episode, I’m joined by Shannon McKinstrie, a Social Media Strategist & Marketer who’s been making waves in the industry. We cover how to find the best social media platforms for you, the importance of storytelling, and making the most out of Instagram and Facebook. Shannon also shares her journey and tips on overcoming self-doubt. 

This episode is packed with practical advice no matter where you are in your social media journey. Let’s jump in!

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:

  • Building an authentic and relatable social media presence
  • Understanding platform-specific strategies, from Instagram to TikTok
  • Tips on creating engaging, story-driven content to connect with clients

Links from this episode:

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Shannon McKinstrie[00:00:00]:
Well, I like to tell realtors, find your golden platform, and that is a mix of where your people are and where you like being. If you need quick, fast growth, Button up is great for Instagram, it's great for LinkedIn, but it's good for kind of building your brand. And I know TikTok is intimidating to a lot of people, so I typically tell people because they're familiar with Facebook and Instagram, I'm like, start there. Because most people know how to use it. TikTok's a little more tricky. It's a totally different beast over there.

Matt Fagioli [00:00:30]:
Hey, guys, welcome Back to the Doorify Real Estate podcast. I'm your host, Matt Fagioli, and I'm checking back in today with one of our awesome PropTech south speakers, Shannon McKinstry. How are you?

Shannon McKinstrie[00:00:43]:
I'm doing well. How are you?

Matt Fagioli [00:00:46]:
I'm doing fantastic, man. I. You were definitely one of the highlight speakers of PropTech South. Lots of people sent amazing feedback about your social media session. So I appreciate you taking a few minutes to jump back on with us and highlight some of the things that agents can be thinking about for their social media campaigns in 2025.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:01:10]:
Yeah, I appreciate that. It was. It was a great group. Everyone was so welcoming, and Realtors will always have a huge piece of my heart, so it was so awesome to be there.

Matt Fagioli [00:01:19]:
Yeah. And you didn't have. You didn't have far to drive, Right? You're right.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:01:22]:
No, it was. Yeah. Like, 20 minutes is great.

Matt Fagioli [00:01:25]:
Well, you know, kind of catch us back up from PropTech South. And for people who maybe weren't there, you know, you. You've become, you know, quite the social media machine. But, like, what's your. What's your story about, you know, how you help people and how you got to where you are and all that?

Shannon McKinstrie[00:01:41]:
Well, it started with, you know, a love of TV production in high school. So I went on to Virginia Tech, studied TV production, communications, marketing, all of it. Cause I was like, I don't really know exactly where I want to go in this field, but again, this is pre social media days. It didn't even exist back then because I went to college in the early 2000. And so, like, Facebook, that didn't even exist yet. Right. And then when I got my quote, unquote dream job that I thought was my dream job at cnn, that's when Facebook rolled out in my space. So, like, I was on overnight shifts, crazy hours, and that would kind of keep me company during those hours.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:02:13]:
And I just grew in love, you know, huge love of social media, especially because I was living in Atlanta, all my family was back home in D.C. so it was a great way to keep in touch with people. And then years and years go by. I ended up moving back to dc, going back and forth with sales jobs, marketing jobs, and just being like, I hate everything. I was like, I don't know what to do with my life anymore. And then all of a sudden in social media, and I was the friend that my friends would come up to me like, we're out. And they're like, what should my caption be? What should I share as my caption for this photo? And they would always joke, like, shannon's our go to for captions and things like that. Because I just.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:02:43]:
That's just how my brain has always worked in a marketing, communications, TV type of brain. So then when social media started going from personal to business, I was like, wait, can I do this for a living? Like, this kind of morphs my love of video, copywriting, creativity, everything. And yeah, so the 9 to 5, I was at that I really, really actually liked. I was in sales. They were like, can someone man the Facebook page and the LinkedIn page? And I was like, yes. And, you know, I didn't get paid extra for it. They were just like, here, take it. And it was my baby, and I was obsessed.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:03:15]:
Then I had my first daughter in 2013. Really traumatizing birth. I was just like, you know what? I'm going to try to do this on my own and just start a social media management agency. And back then, people were not really taking it very seriously. They weren't paying for it a lot. But I promised my husband if I was like, if I can just get a few clients to pay me to post on Facebook. And I knew people in real estate and I knew they needed a lot of help because they were like, the ones that were like, I know I need to do this, but I'm literally my day is all day working. Um, so, yeah, I had like four or five realtors take a chance on me.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:03:45]:
And then it all just went up from there. And I started again teaching at local brokerages in the D.C. area, and I would leave with clients, and it was awesome. So realtors were the first to kind of take me seriously. And then I started working with people all over D.C. and then we moved to North Carolina, and now I'm working with people all over the world. It's just really cool. So long story, but that's it.

Matt Fagioli [00:04:05]:
Well, it's a great story. And, you know, I love you know, I'm just passionate about getting people to jump out and live their dream and, you know, build their, their ideal business. And you've obviously one of the ones that has done that. It's such a, you know, standout move and always scary and crazy scary, you know. So, so how long, tell me again, what year did you start? How long did you take, did it take you to build until you felt like, wow, this is, this is a stable thing.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:04:33]:
A long time. But again, that's a mental thing for me. I was not the smart kid in school. I was not the. Yeah, I mean, I think I just figured I would've sat in a corner of a cubicle, made $45,000 a year the rest of my life. Like, that was just kind of. I was like, okay, that's fine, I'll do. That's just what I'll do.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:04:48]:
So I didn't think anyone would listen to me, take me seriously. So when people did, I was like, what is happening? So it took me a long time, I don't think because of my skills, but more so because I just. The self doubt was just unreal. So I started my business 2014 as kind of a hobby again. I had like a few realtors pay me literally like $50 a month for Facebook. Ryan was like, my husband was like, if you can just help me pay for the groceries and a little bit of the rent. Because, you know, we had a newborn, we had medical bills. Yeah, that was 2014.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:05:14]:
And then I started taking it seriously in about 20, I would say 2018. So 2018 was when a title company in D.C. was like, we actually want to pay you. And they gave me a big chunk of money a month to do their socials. And I was like, I was like, I'm going to throw up. This is crazy. You guys are paying me what? And then they, again, I was the carrot. They dangle to get realtors into the door.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:05:34]:
And I would teach their realtors about social media. They would then use this title company. So I loved being the carrot. I thought it was very. I was like, I will happily do this. It got me out of my comfort zone of terrifying to talk in front of groups of people. Now it's literally my favorite thing to do is to speak. So it's just kind of funny that that was my, the scariest thing and now it's my favorite.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:05:55]:
But yeah, so I would say about four years of really hustling hard. I mean, I'm still hustling hard, but to, to the point that I Was like, oh, I need, like, an llc. Like, this is not just a hobby where I'm making an extraordinary 500amonth. This is like the real deal.

Matt Fagioli [00:06:10]:
Yeah. And I think. I mean, I think people forget about the infamous 10,000 hours. Like, it doesn't happen overnight. You got to get ready for the pain. But the pain is so worth it, you know, when you break through to the other side.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:06:22]:
Yeah.

Matt Fagioli [00:06:23]:
Well, so fast. Fast forward to now. You know, you're serving all kinds of clients. Real estate. Not real estate, whatever. For real estate specifically. What can you share with everybody on this podcast about the things they should be thinking about right now so that they come out of the shoot in 2025 with an amazing social media plan?

Shannon McKinstrie[00:06:44]:
Yeah. So it's funny, even when I think about the realtors I was mentoring and managing back in, like, 2014, 2015, I would tell them all the time, like, they wanted to use these fancy graphics all the time or like, these stock photos. And I was like, everyone wants to just see what you're doing. It's just behind the scenes. So because you guys are doing so much, you actually have an upper hand. Like, I'm sitting in my house most of the day and looking at a computer screen. Right. And I can still create engaging content.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:07:08]:
You guys are out there in the thick of it, looking at cool houses, looking at horrible houses. We want to see it. We want to see the real. In real estate. So, biggest thing that I tell, it's the same thing I've been preaching for literally 10 years, like, take us behind the scenes. So the biggest thing is stories. I would. I know realtors are like, I'm too busy to post all the time.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:07:27]:
I'm like, first of all, don't say that. But I get it. My husband's also in real estate, so I'm like, as much as you can show up in stories, the better, because those are quick off the cuff anyway. You don't have to have a magic formula. So even if it's like your morning orange theory, gearing up for a day of listing appointments and this, like, let us know what you're up to that day. And then maybe at the end of the night, you're like, hey, checking back in, Here's a few glimpses of my day that we love that because again, it's social proof. It's showing that people are working with you. So I would lean on Instagram stories heavily.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:07:57]:
That's where everyone sells. That's where everyone connects. We want to see where you're eating. We want to see everything you're doing and you think that's boring and it's not.

Matt Fagioli [00:08:04]:
And where. Where are we today in terms of video versus still? Is it all video or do you still say stills or. No.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:08:13]:
And the cool thing about Realtors is, like, they're, you know, carousels are a big deal on Instagram specifically, which means you swipe through photos. So not just one still photo, there's many. Same with LinkedIn, same with Facebook. The more you give us to engage with, the better it's going to perform, because that's all these apps care about, is how long someone sticks around on your content. So even pretty photos of houses still work. I mean, we love to look at pretty things on Instagram. TikTok's definitely more crazy over there. You don't want to show the glitz and glam.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:08:45]:
They don't. They. They want the curtain. We want to see everything behind the scenes. But Instagram, we still love to look at a pretty gorgeous entryway you saw or whatever it is. Those. Excuse me, those photo photos still work. Photo carousels still work.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:09:00]:
Still photos still work. We want to see the closing day. We want to cheer on. The difference is when you're sharing that type of content in the caption, tell a story. Don't just say you found this house in Holly Springs. Tell us why they wanted Holly Springs. What. What about the neighborhood they are looking forward to with their kids? Why this? Right? Like, I remember one of my clients, it was so cool because he would just go close on a house.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:09:23]:
Here it is. And I'm like, tell me something. And so finally he, like, I got it out of him. He's like, oh, this guy was a foster child. He went to 16 homes growing up. Whatever it was, he's like, this is his first home. I'm like, that. That's what I want to know.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:09:35]:
And it went crazy. We want to know the backstory because we're not going to remember the house that the person bought. We're going to remember the client you served and how you serve them. So, yeah, stories. And then of course, definitely lean on pictures because I know it's easier for you guys. But tell a story in the caption. And again, everything in social media, you got to grab us. We are so.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:09:57]:
Our attention span is crud. So that first line, just something enticing, right? And that's a lot of things that I teach. So just follow me on Instagram. I'll give you all the hooks you need. But let's say it is a carousel of you walking through the process of helping this. People that were relocating, especially. We know a lot of people are relocating to North Carolina. Use the carousel to tell the story or in the caption, tell the story.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:10:17]:
We. It's a store. All of these are storytelling. That's. That's all we want.

Matt Fagioli [00:10:20]:
So, one, I love your. You know, your Instagram is, you know, totally out there. Just like, you're, you know, raw with it the whole time, which I love.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:10:29]:
Yes. You know, I have to be, though.

Matt Fagioli [00:10:32]:
It is, like, immediately refreshing. Right. There's nothing like, buttoned down or, like, you know, the Instagram chicks on the beach pics. You know that.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:10:40]:
Right, right.

Matt Fagioli [00:10:41]:
You know, so I love that about the way you do it.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:10:44]:
Yeah. If you see that for me, just, you'll know I've been hacked.

Matt Fagioli [00:10:48]:
That's right. So, all right, so we talked about Instagram. You mentioned TikTok just a tiny bit. But what do you recommend that agents. Let's say you're an agent that, you know, was kind of not hot on social media. Like, all right, next year is going to be my year. I'm going to crush social. You know.

Matt Fagioli [00:11:03]:
How many platforms? 1, 2, 3, 6. What is it?

Shannon McKinstrie[00:11:06]:
Okay, well, I like to tell realtors, find your golden platform. And that is a mix of where your people are and where you like being. So let's say you're, again, very buttoned up and you're like, I don't want to be. You know, then I would say probably. TikTok isn't free, to be honest. I mean. Yes. I don't want people to be like, well, Shannon told me not to go on TikTok.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:11:23]:
I mean, do you get on there, see what happens? There's definitely a lot of serious content over on TikTok. But if you're trying to. If you need quick, fast growth, Button up is great for Instagram, it's great for LinkedIn, but it's good for kind of building your brand. So. And I know TikTok is intimidating to a lot of people, so I typically tell people, because they're familiar with Facebook and Instagram, I'm like, start there. Because most people know how to use it. TikTok's a little more tricky. It's a totally different beast over there.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:11:49]:
And because Instagram and Facebook are still part of the same umbrella, you can kind of repurpose. I always suggest to people you can actually use Meta business suite to. Let's say you're sitting on the couch at night, you're like, all right, I'm going To do a post, you can schedule it or just post it directly through Meadow business suite and say you want to post on both Facebook and Instagram at the same time, but you can tab over to Facebook and adjust it a little bit. Because if I go on and I try to tag Matt on Instagram and it goes to Facebook, the link on Facebook is not Matt. So it looks sloppy. It just, you know, so that's what I always suggest to people. If you're just every night, almost like you work out or you. You schedule and whatever, schedule one time, maybe four times a week that like you're going to post.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:12:36]:
And it can be anytime you want to post. You know, years ago I was like, make sure to post at this time, because this is da, da, da, da. The best time to post is when it's best for you to post. But that's something you could do. So if you want to do Facebook and Instagram, or if you're already doing Facebook, you might as well do Instagram, that sort of thing. So start with those two and then if you want to do a third, LinkedIn is my. I'm obsessed with LinkedIn. And maybe start with once a week.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:13:00]:
Because here's the thing on LinkedIn, we don't want tips on LinkedIn, typically, again, nothing's absolute marketing, but we typically don't want tips. We want to know a cool story, a cool win. My LinkedIn content that goes crazy. It's two things. One, when I'm like, oh, my gosh, my podcast got this many downloads, or oh my gosh, I just spoke on, right? People love that stuff because they're cheering for you. You bring. They're still the hero in your story because you're like, thanks for your support. The second piece of content that does well is controversial hot takes about my industry.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:13:29]:
If I'm like social media managers, you deserve more marketers. We deserve more. Like, that goes insane. So if you want to be a thought leader in real estate and you want to speak on stages like PropTech as a real estate agent, LinkedIn is where you need to be. Thought leadership. Thought leadership, Thought leadership. And then those could be your. Your hot.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:13:48]:
Three, and again, if you just stick to One post on LinkedIn a week, that feels doable, right? And then if you want to, you know, you want to try TikTok, I've got you there too. It's just a totally different beast over there.

Matt Fagioli [00:14:02]:
Yeah. What do you talk about that for a minute? So TikTok, compare it, you know, from one year, two years ago, to now, what do you think about that platform and the need to be on there? Vers versus maybe two years ago hyperlocal.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:14:16]:
And I said this at Prop Tech, just start local. Like again, these algorithms are built to feed us content that we will stay on the app to watch. And if I see something about the triangle apex, I'm going to stop because I'm like, let's see what this is about, right? So TikTok, that's insane with Instagram. So I'm saying the same thing for both. So again, if you're doing like, this is what does well on TikTok. For all my real estate clients who go that route, I'm like, don't come on and talk about mortgage rates unless there's something crazy, right? Like if there's something newsworthy, like oh my gosh, blah, blah, blah, just talk about the restaurant you went to, the cool park you found the places to go. Do this. Because TikTok is feeding us content.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:14:57]:
Us people in North Carolina, if you open TikTok every few TikToks are going to be about something that it thinks you're going to like about North Carolina. So. And actually one of my clients who I coached two, three years ago, she was in Shoot, is it Wisconsin? Anyway, she's out, she's out in the Midwest and I begged her, I was like, please just focus on. Because she's one of those who's like, I want to be a realtor, but I also want to be like a content creator. I, I want to be more than just real estate. And I was like, well then you need to talk about everywhere you take your kids, every restaurant that has Tuesday night free meals for kids, every place pumpkin patch you're going to, every road trip within a two hour radius, and she's blown up. So and she's become the go to for everyone there. And guess what? They're like, oh my gosh, she does real estate.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:15:42]:
So now she's become their friend and their go to. So again, if you. Not every Realtor wants to be a content creator, not every realtor wants to do all this stuff, but the ones who do, that's what I say. And especially with TikTok. Or again, if you're in mortgage lending or you're this. And like, you're like, but Shannon, I literally just want to talk about mortgage. Then make it fun. Find a way to make it fun.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:16:00]:
Give us fun analogies, give us hot tips of like, did you know you could, you could go to this app right now and like give Us tangible things that we can do right now. Because mortgage. The thing is, Matt, even with me, if I was to come on and go, all right, guys, we're going to create a viral reel today. Everyone be like, shannon, I can't even get five views. Being like, all right, let's get you approved for a blah, blah, blah mortgage. They're like, I am in crushing debt. It's so far for them that they can't even get there. So they're like, swipe.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:16:28]:
Because all it's going to do is make them feel like a failure. So if you can create content that makes them feel capable, that's what you're going to do. When it comes to mortgage lending, buying a home. Do not give me something that I'm like, that feels like five years down the road. What's something I can do today to make homeownership a reality? So, again, if you want to go the more educational route with real estate, that's great, but you got to make it interesting and fun.

Matt Fagioli [00:16:49]:
Yeah. Wow, man, those are great tips. Last question. Everything you've talked about sounds pretty organic. What do you recommend or not about paid ads and all that stuff?

Shannon McKinstrie[00:16:59]:
Yeah. So ads are expensive these days. Like, or. Sorry, do you see AI or ads?

Matt Fagioli [00:17:04]:
Well, both.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:17:05]:
Okay. Sorry.

Matt Fagioli [00:17:06]:
I said. I said ads. But. But the.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:17:08]:
Oh, good. No, Yeah. I don't know as much about AI. I don't lean on AI that much. I'm fascinated by it. But I just. My brain won't let me do it. Cause I just love coming up with my own stuff.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:17:16]:
I tell my clients, take everything I create, throw it in AI and have it create 10 more of the same thing. Cause all marketing is. Is us saying the same thing over and over again in different ways. So. But start with your own stuff first. Is what I tell people with AI. So it sounds like you, okay, so ads, they're expensive. I don't run ads because they're expensive and I'm cheap.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:17:35]:
And I just, I don't know. I think I'm definitely one of those people, you have to know me before you purchase for me. I'm not like, but again, everyone needs a house. Not everyone needs my services, but everyone needs a house. And everyone in your area wants to know stuff about their area. So you guys are. I tell realtors, they don't believe me, but I'm like, you guys have such a upper hand on social media and you have no idea. So with that said, for ads, I wouldn't do open house ads unless if your clients really want you know, I know sometimes it's a time that you're just.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:18:07]:
You want to show your clients, look, I boosted this post. Whatever. If you do that, I would make sure to only boost to that local area because for you, you might get clients out of it. Right. But ads are long term. And the thing with ads, because we have run ads with a membership I do with my business partner. So we have done that, but I've never done ads for myself. And what I've learned from them, one, hire someone to do them.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:18:28]:
Because they are. I'm telling you again, I'm. I've been in social media marketing over 10 years. I can't run an ad. Like, I have. No. It's such. It's crazy.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:18:37]:
It's a whole nother platform that they use. It's. It just breaks my brain. So our ad girl, you test out different things. You really want to strategize. Like, this is not something you throw out and just see what happens. Cause that's a waste of money. So I would invest in an ads manager who specializes in real estate ads.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:18:53]:
And trust me, they're out there. There are Facebook ad managers for realtors. And again, I would do a video of a something about the area. Yeah, yeah. Make it fun. Again. Make it fun.

Matt Fagioli [00:19:05]:
Cool.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:19:06]:
Or like, again, relocating, maybe you're pushing out to people who are constantly searching for relocating to North Carolina. That would be a genius ad. Like, because it's crazy how much info Facebook has. But, you know, it's been like, I've even told my husband I want to do a fun series with him. Like places we take our family when they come to visit to convince them to move here. You know, like that. That's fun. That's fun to absorb.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:19:31]:
So just make sure if you're going to run an ad, you've done your research and you're working with someone who knows what they're talking about.

Matt Fagioli [00:19:37]:
Awesome. Well, Shannon, I super appreciate you checking back in and I hope you will come back to PropTech south in the future and.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:19:45]:
Absolutely.

Matt Fagioli [00:19:45]:
How does everybody find you and, you know, get more info on what you're up to?

Shannon McKinstrie[00:19:49]:
Yeah. So I'm pretty much everywhere. Again, you don't have to be, but I'm everywhere. So whatever platform you want to find me on, I'm on LinkedIn, Instagram. I'm actually not on Facebook much at all, but TikTok. But it's just at Shannon McKinstry. My website's the same Shannon McKinstry. So if you need support, I've got free resources.

Shannon McKinstrie[00:20:06]:
And I have a YouTube channel now and a podcast, too. So many ways to find me. Just keep hounding me till I answer.

Matt Fagioli [00:20:13]:
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thanks for being back here on the Doorify real estate podcast. We'll see you, Shannon.

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